Members johnnydb Posted October 6, 2021 Members Report Posted October 6, 2021 (edited) I, by absolute necessity, decided to bite the bullet and begin cutting and tooling. I spent the last two weeks watching all kinds of videos about this. It has been over 40 years since I did this in art class in junior high. Just got home with it this morning. Started on my study piece. (Usable Practice piece before I do the goal piece) I had to spend several hours sharpening the swivel knife. (Cheap one in the kit Tandy sells) first off it was so dull it wouldn't cut butter. (I tried) So I changed the angle of the grind (they didn't have any hollow grind) and then polished it up using an Arkansas stone progression through the black surgical stone. Finally getting to the leather strop. Now it's sharp. (I'm used to sharpening my straight razors...I even use a jewelers loupe to check the edge) Haven't used the jewler's rouge yet... maybe later. So I had a printout for a butterfly on printer paper and I used a stylus to transfer it to the leather I had cased. My tracing was a bit shakey... Then I got the freshly sharpened swivel knife out and began. Again the light above cast shadows and that was really annoying. Again it was another shakey job...went outside the lines a bit. Still not completely disgusted (although I should have been) I grabbed the hammer and the little edgy thingy and began to hammer out the cuts. Again more disgust with my skills abounded as there were misstrikes and lumpy tooling marks. So... currently awaiting it to dry out and then going to oil it up and see what more damage I can do to this 4oz piece of leather. Edited October 6, 2021 by johnnydb Quote
Contributing Member fredk Posted October 7, 2021 Contributing Member Report Posted October 7, 2021 9 hours ago, johnnydb said: Then I got the freshly sharpened swivel knife out and began. Again the light above cast shadows and that was really annoying. Again it was another shakey job...went outside the lines a bit. If you have a problem with lighting your work 1. I have a couple of poseable lights, on each side of the bench, each with a very bright bulb. I use day-light colour balanced LED bulbs, about 20w, equivalent to about 100 -120w incandescent bulb. I can angle these lights anyways on to my work to eliminate any shadows 2. very occasionally I use a small fore-head light. Its a small LED torch which you can wear on your fore-head using its elastic strap. You can buy these for a couple of $$. Mine cost me £1 and I have several lying around the place. It gives a very bright light for all of its small size 3. You can buy an 'Opti-Visor' with a light and magnifiers built into one visor. These are more expensive, from about $10 upwards. Quote Al speling misteaks aer all mi own werk..
Members Klara Posted October 7, 2021 Members Report Posted October 7, 2021 On the original subject: It's fascinating what can be done with only a swivel knife and a modeling spoon. Jim Linnell of Elktrackstudios sells a video "Simple Figure Carving" where he carves an eagle's head. I love how he says that "better" (or at least more expensive) tools do not replace practice. And I am pretty sure that nothing replaces good leather tanned for tooling, either, though for now I can only say with certainty that some cheap thin no-name leather does not make things easier... Quote
Members johnnydb Posted October 7, 2021 Members Report Posted October 7, 2021 8 hours ago, fredk said: If you have a problem with lighting your work 1. I have a couple of poseable lights, on each side of the bench, each with a very bright bulb. I use day-light colour balanced LED bulbs, about 20w, equivalent to about 100 -120w incandescent bulb. I can angle these lights anyways on to my work to eliminate any shadows 2. very occasionally I use a small fore-head light. Its a small LED torch which you can wear on your fore-head using its elastic strap. You can buy these for a couple of $$. Mine cost me £1 and I have several lying around the place. It gives a very bright light for all of its small size 3. You can buy an 'Opti-Visor' with a light and magnifiers built into one visor. These are more expensive, from about $10 upwards. As an electrician the thoughts about getting a lamp weren't lost on me...I actually specialized in complicated lighting systems at work. Lots of control work. And shadows (adding or removing them) was very much a part of that. But the headlamp with a magnifying glass is something I might get... As it is I'm doing a study so it's all about practice and where I'm trying my best I'm also trying things out as an experiment. It doesn't have to be perfect...just finished using a wool dauber to apply a coat of neatsfoot and letting it dry. Then going to apply some dye later...then maybe Trac gum for the inside and applying the cloth lining. Then comes the gold foil embossing. I'm trying to do this without a machine. Gonna try to get my clothes iron to heat the letters and then stamp the foil into the leather...I'm hoping for a good outcome. If it doesn't work...no harm, no foul. But I hope for the best. Nothing doing but the trying. Quote
Members johnnydb Posted October 8, 2021 Members Report Posted October 8, 2021 Journal Study https://imgur.com/a/J4K5sBw Ok...so here's the gallery of what I was able to accomplish for my first study of a larger journal cover I'm getting ready to make. My swivel knife work needs more practice...so does my tooling. As you look through you will see tests of dyeing, the Trac gum I used to polish the inside flaps and the embroidered upholstery cloth I used to line it. Lots of neatsfoot oil and I thinned the dye a bit. Then used satin sheen to seal it all. The gold leaf embossing was done with a cheap set of letters and my clothes iron set on "cotton". Quote
Northmount Posted October 9, 2021 Report Posted October 9, 2021 17 hours ago, johnnydb said: Journal Study https://imgur.com/a/J4K5sBw @johnnydb Please post your photos here. Third party hosting often results in bad links due to people changing permissions, moving files, deleting their account, host going out of business or changing policies, etc. When this happens, the posts in the thread lose relevance and become useless to future readers. If you are having trouble posting here, reduce the size of your photos to 800x600 or 1024x768 pixels and you can post maybe hundreds of photos in a single post. See this thread for help if you need it. Lots of options https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/15122-how-to-post-pictures-on-lw/?do=findComment&comment=551171 Quote
Members johnnydb Posted October 9, 2021 Members Report Posted October 9, 2021 Ok... Trying the resizer...but I'm kinda really bad at following directions. Quote
Members johnnydb Posted October 9, 2021 Members Report Posted October 9, 2021 Ok... Trying the resizer...but I'm kinda really bad at following directions. Quote
Northmount Posted October 10, 2021 Report Posted October 10, 2021 4 hours ago, johnnydb said: Trying the resizer...but I'm kinda really bad at following directions. You are doing OK here. You can drop several pictures on a post. Then click the plus (+) sign to put them where your cursor is in the text of the post. Thanks for making the effort. Quote
Members johnnydb Posted October 11, 2021 Members Report Posted October 11, 2021 (edited) Some improvement... gonna try this one again and see if I can get better. Edited October 11, 2021 by johnnydb Additional information Quote
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